Eminent domains

There's no denying that Southern authors are uniquely bound to their home turf just think about the kind of writer William Faulkner might have become if he'd been born someplace besides Mississippi. In Writers of the American South: Their Literary Landscapes, the remarkable relationship between Southern authors and their native soil comes alive as 12 popular novelists take readers on a tour of...

Cover artist

Chip Kidd occupies a unique niche in the literary world. For the past two decades he has produced book jackets at Alfred A. Knopf, winning wide acclaim for his eye-catching artwork and ingenious designs. His uncanny ability to capture the essence of a book in a single image is showcased in Chip Kidd Book One Work: 1986-2006 , a glossy new volume that offers a wonderful overview of his career....

4,109 issues and counting

What will the folks at The New Yorker think of next? Following the success of last year's Complete Cartoons, their newest coup, The Complete New Yorker: Eighty Years of the Nation's Greatest Magazine, is an eight-DVD set that contains each issue of the weekly in its entirety, from February 21, 1925, to February 21, 2005. That's eight decades' worth of groundbreaking reportage, classic fiction...

Back to the woods

An artist unafraid to improvise at life, Henry David Thoreau was a man who dared to be an idealist. In 1845, he conducted his famous experiment in the woods of Massachusetts, single-handedly building a cabin on Walden Pond, where he weathered two winters in solitude. Honoring his strength of spirit and unique wisdom, Walden: 150th Illustrated Edition of the American Classic was recently...

A writer's refuge

A must-have for any bibliophile, American Writers at Home, co-published by the Library of America and the Vendome Press, provides a peek into the private lives of 21 famous literary figures. Taking readers on a coast-to-coast tour, this wonderful book visits the painstakingly preserved homes of a wide range of writers. From Eugene O'Neill's elegant, understated residence in Danville,...

The magazine America grew up with

It's a cultural institution, a reflection of our national character, a testament to our affection for the absurd. The New Yorker made its publishing debut in 1925 and has been amusing readers ever since. Now, as the revered weekly prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary, The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker sure to be the blockbuster book of the holiday season collects 2,004 of the...

From the lens of Leibovitz

Bringing together her revelatory portraits of some of the biggest names in the music industry, American Music is a collection of Annie Leibovitz's greatest hits and the ultimate photo album for any fan. From tattooed tough-guy Eminem to angelic songstress Emmylou Harris and the velvet-voiced Mary J. Blige, the images in this intuitive, passionate volume reflect the varied nature of American...

Listen to the river

A remarkable homage to Earth's most ephemeral element, Water Music is a luminous collection of photographs by Marjorie Ryerson accompanied by essays, poems and songs from an international lineup of musicians as they pay tribute to a precious natural resource: water. "I was enthralled by the challenge of capturing on film the astonishing breadth of ways in which water presents itself," Ryerson,...

The blues all over again

A salty little music sampler, Squeeze My Lemon: A Collection of Classic Blues Lyrics is a compilation of choice outtakes from some of the most soulful songs ever captured on wax. These sound bites, culled from tunes by the likes of Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson, have all the spirit and sass of the South. Full of lively metaphors, they're brief and simple yet...

It's only rock 'n' roll

<B>It's only rock 'n' roll</B> Revisit the mod, mad days of the British Invasion with <B>According to the Rolling Stones</B>, a comprehensive scrapbook of the band that's filled with rare images, sensational stories and an invaluable reference section. Narrated by the Stones themselves, the volume represents the collective efforts of Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ron as they...